Football. Pogoń needs 3 victories for the European cups!

With victories against Raków Częstochowa and Puszcza Niepołomice, the players of the top league Pogoń Szczecin came closer to the current Polish champions, Jagiellonia Białystok, which raised the hopes of their fans for European cups, but the hopes were greatly cooled when the Port team lost away to Radomiak, and Artur Siemienic's team defeated Raków at Jasna Góra, jumping ahead of the Szczecin team by six points with two rounds before the end...

There is still a chance for Pogoń to play in the Europa Conference League, and the Port team still has everything proverbially in their own feet and does not have to count on the help of other teams. In order to show themselves in Europe, coach Robert Kolendowicz's team should simply win all the matches until the end of the competition, which they will then finish in third place! First, they have to win the postponed match with Motor Lublin on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. at Twardowskiego, and then win on Saturday at 2:45 p.m. also at home with Lechia Gdańsk. Assuming that in the penultimate round Jagiellonia wins in Wrocław against the already relegated Śląsk, in order to overtake the team from Białystok in the table, it will be enough to beat them on Saturday, May 24 at 5:30 p.m. away in the last match (because in Gryf's city there was a 1:1 draw, so if the Szczecin team wins on the delegation, they will have a better balance of direct matches).

But is winning three league matches - and in a short period of time - realistic? Looking at the attitude of our players in the 0:2 defeat to Radomiak (so far, Pogoń has never lost in Radom, neither in the league nor in the Polish Cup!), one can have serious doubts. Let's recall how it was in several previous matches; the porters lost to Piast in Gliwice after a poor game 1:2, then they won against Raków Częstochowa at home 1:0 (but they played almost the entire match with an advantage of one player, and besides, it was Holy Saturday and we know how visiting teams treat matches on holidays), and later they defeated Puszcza in Niepołomice 5:4, but very fortunately, because they were already losing 2:4...

At the end of the exhausting season, Pogoń, playing practically without a reserve bench, began to lose strength, and the destruction was completed by health problems of the players and cards, due to which two defenders could not play against Radomiak: Danijel Lončar and Léo Borges. In recent matches, captain Kamil Grosicki, who will turn 37 on June 8, was not himself anymore, and let us recall that he was involved in almost all the goals scored by the porters; as a scorer, an assistant or a creator of the action! In this situation, will coach Robert Kolendowicz be able to prepare and motivate his players to win all the matches? The task is certainly not easy...

What does our team's end-of-season preparation plan look like? Our team had one football training session yesterday and today (classified classes), and on Thursday and Friday the port workers will also work once a day on the pitch, while Sunday will be a well-deserved day off.©℗ (mij)